Amazon experiments with “anticipatory shipping”

To clarify: they don’t really know YOU so well it wants to ship your next package before you order it, but Amazon says it may box and ship products it expects customers in a specific area will want – based on previous orders and other factors — but haven’t yet ordered. According to the patent mentioned in the article, the packages could wait at the shippers’ hubs or on trucks until an order arrives.

In deciding what to ship, Amazon said it may consider previous orders, product searches, wish lists, shopping-cart contents, returns and even how long an Internet user’s cursor hovers over an item.